800 



ILLINOIS 



tricts, thus showing the mean annual temperature of the 

 northern district, — which is second to the southern in 

 small-fruit production, and in 1898 produced more grapes 

 than both the other districts put together, — to be practi- 

 cally the same as that of the great grape and smal] fruit 

 sections of central New York. While speaking of tem- 

 perature it should also be noted that the mean annual 

 temperature of the famous Santa Clara valley and the 

 Santa Cruz mountain wine grape district of California 

 is 55° P., or about that of Madison and Bond counties, 

 Illinois. 



In 1898 the total annual precipitation at Galena, in the 

 extreme northwest corner of the state, was 30 inches; 

 in Henderson county and from thence along a line a 

 little north of east clear across the state, 40 inches; in 

 a circle taking in Adams, Pike, Fult07i, Tazewell, Menard 

 and Morgan counties, and along a line entering the state 

 in Monroe county, bending north almost as far as Spring- 

 field, and thence southeast to Lawrence county, 50 

 inches; and in the 12 or 14 extreme southern counties 

 of the state, GO inches. The mean annual rainfall for 

 10 years up to and including 1898 at the Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station at Urbana, Cliampaign 

 county, was nearly ^i3?y inches. 



Products. — An idea of the extent of the horticultural 

 interests of Illinois can be best gained by reference to 

 the following tables, which give the approximate pro- 

 duction of the various horticultural crops raised in the 

 state for five years, down to and including I89S: 



The large falling off in the apple production of the 



.state during the season of 1898 was due to a scourge of 



the apple-scab fungus, which attaclied and devastated 



the apple orchards in all parts of the state. 



'' Pear-growing in southern Illinois has been 



more or less kept bacli by the prevalence of 



pear blight, which has destroyed many trees 



before coming into bearing. No comment on 



the other tables is necessary, as they tell 



their own story. 



The nursery industry has been largely de- 

 veloped in Illinois. There are 447 commercial 

 nurseries in the state, 203 in the northern 

 division, 14.3 in the central, and 101 in tlie 

 southern. The other branches of horticul- 

 tural industry are also well developed in the 

 state. Gardening for the Chicago market 

 forms a large and important business in it- 

 self ; while the growing of vegetables for 

 shipment in certain sections of southern Illi- 

 nois is assuming large proportions. Cobden, in Union 

 county, is the largest shipping point for tomatoes in 

 the United States, sending out some 300 car-loads of 

 this single fruit during the season of 1898. Union 

 county, exclusive of Cobden, shipped to outside mar- 

 kets about 400 car-loads of tomatoes during the same 

 season. 



Chicago was, according to the census of 1890, the sec- 

 ond largest market in the United States for cut-flowers. 

 The business has grown considerably since that time, 

 although exact figures are not obtainable. The only 

 notable examples of landscape horticulture or landscape 

 gardening in the state are found in the Chicago city 

 park system, which is the largest and in some respects 

 the finest in the entire country. 



With her situation, natural advantages, vast resources 

 and present attainments along these lines, Illinois seems 

 destined to take even higher rank horticulturally in the 

 not far distant future tliau she has in the past; and 

 with her increasing production and immense and grow- 

 ing railway facilities, to prove a formiilable rival to the 

 older fruit-producing regions of the Union. 



Tlie tables giving crop reports are compiled from 

 figures given in the annual statistical reports of the 

 Illinois State Board of Agriculture. Other figures (ex- 

 cept where noted as being from census report) are from 

 the Report of the Illinois State Farmers' Institute for 

 1898. The climatic and meteorological information is 

 based on reports of the United States Weather Bureau 

 and records of the Illinois Agricultural Experiment 



Station. 



.T. C, Blaib. 



